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tv   Rock Center With Brian Williams  NBC  February 15, 2013 10:00pm-11:00pm EST

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exhibitionists used to draw. ♪ ♪ >> we're the exhibitionists. thank you. long story. we'll talk about it later. >> as for jean huden, the woman who protected the killer out of love even as she was being treated so badly and who then finally stood up for herself and exposed him, the prosecutions of jim huden and peggy thomas represent the end of something sad and maybe the start of something better. >> i'm tired of pay for example what they did. so hopefully i'll be able to move on now and, you know, i can pick up the pieces, you know, stay with bill and kind of try to have a normal life again. ♪ that's all for this edition of "dateline" friday. i'm lester holt.
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join us for dateline at 7:00, 6:00 central. up next "rock center" with brian williams. criminal evidence abandoned in a warehouse and how one prosecutor's outrage unraveled a mystery and changed everything. "rock center" starts right now . ladies and gentlemen, this is the national broadcasting company. >> tonight on "rock center." we were listing so bad my entire room flooded. you never knew what could happen. >> i thought we could die.
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>> it was such a disgrace. >> kate snow investigates what's being called an outrageous failure of justice that hurt so many women it took a hero to expose. >> you've been called the toughest woman in detroit. >> i've been called a lot of things. that's just one of them. >> also tonight, it's not just the huge prize money. or the party, party vibe or even the celebrity host. >> you might be a red neck. >> harry smith checks out the game show by daring to ask how much do you know about the bible? >> resurrection is correct. >> i didn't want to be in a line in hell going this is the game show, right? it was the game show. >> that and more as "rock center" gets under way. good evening. you've seen the commercials. they air often on this network and others, what the cruise lines are selling all of us is the chance to get away.
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get out on the water, relax, unwind, have fun, do something different. well, that something different sure happened to the passengers onboard the carnival triumph cruise ship. as we've seen, starting with the fire, the power failure, the air-conditioning went out, bathrooms failed, food ran out, misery and bedlam broke out and now the ship is in port. tonight, we're finding out more, including the more serious health situations that developed onboard. dr. nancy snyderman is there for us tonight in mobile, alabama. >> this family reunion in a parking lot in galveston, texas, was not the kind of reunion the alderman and colon family had planned when they booked a cruise on the carnival triumph. their trip was supposed to be a birthday party and family reunion at sea planned for more than a year and including 31
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relatives. their joy in being together captured in this portrait taken aboard the ship. this trip of a lifetime was ruined when at 5:30 last southbound the ship's p.a. system sounded alarms says mercedes perez de colon. >> for me that was the most serious part. oh, my gosh, they're here for my birthday and something's going to happen and i brought them all onboard. >> the family was scattered all over the ship, 14 stories high. their thoughts instantly turned to one member, rachel aldaret, 54 years old and suffering can kidney disease. she needed regular dialysis to stay alive and was due for a treatment on tuesday. >> all they could tell us is we're waiting. we're waiting. we don't know how long this is going to be. so the crew engineered a harrowing transfer off the ship. there was another woman also evacuated as seen in these images captured by another passenger arc board the ship. a coast guard boat pulled up
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alongside the massive and powerless ship and the vessels bobbed up and down in choppy waters and this is how rachel was taken off, too. >> i didn't know that they were just going to open the door and tie a rope with a -- like a ladder and for me to climb into that small boat. when i started walking over there i looked at the water and i'm, like, oh, no and the boat was going like this and i'm, like, oh, no, you're going to drop me. your going to drop me. i don't know how to swim and this and that. you're going to drop me. >> rachel was taken to mexico to receive her treatment and then flown back home to austin, texas. >> chaos onboard this ship began when a fire erupted in the engine room four days into the cruise. >> fire. >> this scene showed that is supposed to be the worst thing that could happen at sea. >> sparks billowing from the carnival triumph and filtering down the cabins of the ship. >> we could have died. there was smoke coming down.
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>> christy stephens and her friends lisa barcelona and karen hill are members of a dinner club from houston who decided to take a cruise together. >> do you guys think you got on a safe ship? >> absolutely not. >> no. >> no. >> the second monday we were listing so bad my entire room flooded. so -- >> from what? >> the toilet, the shower, everything. my feet were -- the floor was squishy. >> were you worry withed at all as women traveling by yourselves that at any time you weren't safe? >> that's why we were locked away. >> just kind of survival mode. you've found a place for us that was contain and it had a back wall and a door. you never knew what could happen. >> so many doors were broken -- i mean, it wasn't safe as far as their protocol, you know. everybody fend for themselves as far as food.
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let floor 1 and 2 go between len and 11:30. it was may chaos and everyone running and hoarding the food. the people in the back, we had soaked submarine sandwiches. it was bread and tomato. >> they became known onboard as the library ladies. >> i won't be going on another cruise. >> done? >> done. yeah. >> in orth corner of the massive ship there was a group of women who called themselves the mama bears. >> caroline martindale, carolina padilla and ashley lam were there for ashley riggs' bachelorette party. >> as the bride-to-be was this your idea of an extravaganza. >> after discussing with all my friends it would be really easy for all of us to come together and what an easy way to have a bachelorette party. >> and for the first day and a half it was good. >> a lot of fun. a lot of fun. >> really fun. >> jamie, when did things start to not be fun? >> when we woke up to the smell of smoke. i guess it was sunday night. a
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pauline and i had crashed a little bit early. she said do you smell smoke? i do, but go back to sleep and ashley had passed out in her room and we were spread out in three different rooms and then the alarms and then the p.a. system and don't panic, there's a fire. how do you say that in the same sentence on a boat. >> did you ask is there a ship coming? was the coast guard coming? >> you had to stand in line for two and a half hours to get food. i was standing in line and there was a guy there that was a mechanic on the boat, and i asked him, i said when you all saw the fire why didn't you all immediately call for help and he told us what, jamie? that they thought they could fix it. >> they thought they could fix it. >> we went for hours -- ten hours, before we even knew. they kept saying the engine -- we have to cool the engine before we can see the situation. so we had no clue what was going on. >> and then you heard that this
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ship has had problems before. >> absolutely. >> just last month the carnival triumph had a mechanical problem that delayed a cruise to mexico. >> and it needs to be changed. >> and now plaintiff's lawyers like mississippi's john eaves are beginning to weigh in. >> there have been three fires aboard ships from this company since 2010. today eaves was part of a group of lawyers to file the first lawsuit against carnival cruise lines. carnival declined to respond, telling nbc news, quote, we have not yet seen the suit and are not in a position to comment. >> but ceo jerry cahill did apologize profusely to the passengers and the public. >> i know the conditions onboard were very poor. i know it was very difficult, and i want to apologize again for subjects our guests to that. >> eaves has a history with carnival, having represented over 100 passengers aboard the
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doomed costa concordia which sank off the coast of italy last year claiming 32 lives. it, too, was owned by carnival. as part of that lawsuit, a judge authorized the seizure of another of carnival's massive ships. >> we are here to execute a court order. >> that seized vessel was none other than the carnival triumph. >> and you impounded it because you believed it wasn't safe? >> that's correct. >> you seized the ship, held it. they paid $10 million to get it back to sea. do you think anyone who boarded the triumph knew that this ship was out on bail? >> i don't think so. >> you have described the cruise ship industry as the wild west. why? >> because they have operated without regulation, without oversight in a legal system that allows them to avoid responsibility. >> carnival and the other cruise companies set up these contracts, passenger tickets and
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most passengers never read them, but they send these tickets and they try to escape every possible responsibility and make the passenger give up every possible right that they have. >> i have now spoken to doctor, lawyer, nurse, teacher, educated people, i've asked every single one, did you read the document? nobody did. >> it's no surprise. >> industry representative bud dhar says there are standards in place to protect passengers' rights. >> this is already a very heavily regulated industry. it's regulated at both international levels and national levels and the enforcement occurs in multiple layers. >> carnival has offered pa passengers a free refund, vouchers for a free cruise and $500. some pass everyoningers have said that's not enough, but no matter how they feel about the company, almost all of them have praised the actions of the crew members during their ordeal. >> great. they were great. you couldn't have asked for
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anybody to have been any better to us. they did everything they could possibly do. >> nancy snyderman reporting from mobile, alabama, for us. thanks. next up, why was key forensic evidence left to gather dust on a shelf that could have helped to apprehend criminals that attacked women. kate snow spoke to a woman who feared for more than a decade who feared her attacker would strike again. >> there were times that i would be afraid. a lot of times i would have people come over and spend the night. hey, can can you come and spend the night. >> you didn't want to be alone? >> no. >> no. hey! hey honey! hey alan. uh, hey.... i'm bob, we talked at the tax store. i did your taxes. i thou??t you were a tax expert? today, i'm a master plumber. major tax stores advertise for preparers with "no tax experience necessary." at turbotax, you only get answers from cpas, eas or tax attorneys - all real tax experts.
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>> welcome back. in almost all crimes the fundamental question is who did it and why. tonight we have a trouble troubling investigation that turns that question on its head to ask instead why wasn't something done? at issue here is evidence, women courageously gave to police after brutal, life-changing attacks on them. what happened next has brought a lot of attention to one american city's police department and it has convinced one law enforcement official to confront
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some of the people she relies on most. kate snow has our report. >> you've been called the toughest woman in detroit. >> well, i've been called a lot of things. that's just one of them. >> even in a hard-hit town full of tough women, kym worthy stands out. she's the wayne county prosecutor, the chief law enforcement officer in the detroit area. she's also a single mother raising three daughters on her own. >> i guess so. >> constantly juggling home life and work. >> i wanted to be a lawyer. i fell into the job of being a prosecutor the moment i started doing this work i knew it was work for me. >> never one to shy away from the toughest cases, worthy prosecuted detroit's former mayor kwame kill patrick. >> we are not going ignore true justice at any time. >> she's the one person in detroit you really don't want to get angry and that's exactly what happened back in august 2009 all because of a discovery that centered on this warehouse
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downtown. >> paint a picture for me. what was it like on the third floor. >> >> it was very musty smelling, very warm. dusty, dirty. >> at the time this building was the det wrote police department's overflow storage facility from evidence from investigations, but the system for processing evidence was in disarray, so one of worthy's prosecutors rob spada was called in to help police catalog and sort what they had. what they had was a jumbled mess. >> they had evidence from one case sitting next to evidence from another case. >> he stumbled upon rows of boxes stacked on top of each other. >> i saw numerous racks with cardboard boxes and they told me at that point those were rape kits. i immediately asked representatives were they tested rape kits and untested rape kits. at that point they said we don't know. >> rape kits. they're what hospitals use to collect dna from a victim in the
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hopes that police can test it and identify a rapist. dna is often the most important evidence used to convict. spada says there were thousands of boxes each containing about five kits. >> is this about the size -- >> exact side. >> this is about the size of the boxes you saw on the shelves. >> yes. >> so you saw dozens and dozens of these in a row? >> yes. >> he estimated there were more than 10,000 rape kits. >> it sounds so disrespectful of what it is. >> exactly. that's why i immediately came back to my office and alerted the prosecutor. >> i said you have got to be kidding me. what we were potentially looking at team over 10,000 cases, over women had reported and whose lives and what happened to them were sitting on on a shelf and i was stunned and not too much stuns me. i went home that night and i said that can't possibly true,
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and i put in 10,000 rape kits on google and i was further shocked to find this was a national problem and not just a detroit problem. >> you found articles in other cities? >> everywhere. >> where? >> l.a., new york, chicago, in the fbi, all over this country. texas. all over this country. >> did you scream from the rooftops? >> i contacted the police chief. >> the police chief at the time promised an internal review, but she didn't think that was enough. so she found volunteers on her staff to start sifting through the rape kits all 11,303 of them trying to match each one with a victim using old handwritten police log books. >> we were literally blowing off dust and dirt off of these books so we can open them up and see if we could find any information in these books that would match the rape kit. my prosecutors that are overworked, underpaid and have too much to do, volunteers on their own time because we were all concerned about this issue.
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>> some kits were 20 years old. others were as recent at 2008. thousands of potential victims of brutal crimes and in a way, there might not have been anyone better suited to help them. >> you can empathize with these women. >> yes. >> yes, i was a sexual assault victim when i was in law school and i didn't even report my sexual assault. and so it's not only the fact that i was a sexual assault victim which i really don't think, had a lot to do with my passion now, but it's a part of who i am certainly and this may sound strange, but what happened to me in law school happened for a reason and led me to what i am doing now. i always felt that way. >> what she's doing now is spearheading the tests to dna in the rape kits in the hopes that some women may finally see justice. women like audrey polk. >> you, your whole life you grew up in detroit, right? >> yeah. >> who she was and who she's become are forever framed by the events of february 17, 1997.
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>> that was the night when someone came into our house and, um, i was violated. >> were you asleep? >> yes. >> and someone you didn't know. >> i didn't know. right. what woke me up was his weight on top of me. >> where were your kids? >> lying right next to me. >> in the same bed? >> yes. yes. >> after her assault polk immediately went to a hospital and was examined to collect evidence for a rape kit. it took hours. >> that takes a lot of courage. >> yeah. but i had to do it. >> why? >> i had no choice. that was the only way i could ever have a way of, you know, getting this person off the street. >> so you do all that. do you call them the next day
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and say, okay, have you found him yet? >> actually, i called several times, and i never really got a solid answer. >> what would they say? >> just, well, we're investigating or just something to just tell me to, you know, hold me over for a little more time. >> eventually audrey just stopped calling, but 14 years later her life would be up ended again. this time with a knock at her door. >> i answered the door. >> and who is standing there? >> i heard the wayne county prosecutor's office and i opened the door and said ma'am, i've never done anything wrong in my life. >> and she goes. no, we know who raped you 14 years ago. and i'm looking at her, like, are you really serious? >> but after so many years,
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would audrey be willing to face her attacker in court? >> i was horrified. i was very afraid because now i was going to see this person. ♪ na na na na na ♪ i woke up to a new day ♪ every little thing gonna go my way ♪ ♪ i woke up to a light bulb on ♪ every little thing is possible now ♪ [ female announcer ] we've added a touch of philadelphia cream cheese to our kraft natural shredded cheese so you can bring a creamier melt to any morning. ♪ life is amazing with the love that i've found ♪ ♪
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welcome back. in the first part of kate snow's report tonight the full magnitude of the problem became clear. dna evidence from thousands of those sex ual assaults were sitting untested in a detroit warehouse, but could the evidence still lead to the attackers and would victims be able to relive those horrible events after struggling for years to recover. here now, kate snow, continues
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her reporting. >> for 14 years audrey polk's rape kit sat untested on a dusty warehouse shelf, but now a prosecutor was on her doorstep with the news that her attacker had been found. >> and i'm looking at her, like, are you really serious? i said come right in. you're more than welcome to come in my house. the first thing she said, well, do you still want to pros duecu? i said certainly. absolutely. yes, i do. >> audrey hoped she would finally see justice done after all those years of living in fear, wondering if her assailant was still out there. >> there were times when i would be afraid. a lot of times i would have people come over and spend the night, hey, can you come spend the night? >> you didn't want to be alone. >> no. audrey's two children witnessed the attack. her daughter was an infant and her son was just 6.
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audrey says he had an especially hard time dealing with it. >> why does it make you tear up now? >> it makes me tear up now because i know what he's gone through, and his anger. how his life was interrupted and he was cheated out of a normal childhood, you know? that's not fair. >> that one night just changed everything for that little boy. >> everything. who would ever even imagine? >> now kym worthy's team of prosecutors had finally tested the dna in the kit and found a match. >> so when they said to you, we never actually used the evidence that you gave us 14 years ago, we just used it recently. what did you think? >> it was such a disgrace. why would you, you know, take an oath to protect and serve
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people, you know what i mean? that's what you do or that's what you claim to be doing. >> but after 14 years it still wasn't over. audrey now had to face the man who raped her in court and take the stand. during the trial her character was attacked, but she didn't back down. her assailant was found guilty and sentenced to up to 60 years in prison. >> i feel like someone's paid attention now, and it makes me feel a little better. and to those who shut the doors and kept putting boxes, and kits. shame on them all. shame on them. >> as the kits have been opened and sorted, there have been sobering discoveries of the 600 kits tested so far. a stunning number of repeat offenders. >> we have 21 serial rapists out
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of the roughly 600 kits that have been tested. >> that's astounding. >> almost three times than we expect. >> consider the case of shelly brooks. his dna was collected in a rape case in 2002 and sat on that warehouse shelf untested for seven years. during that time he murdered three women. >> that's unbelievable. >> that's only one case, of over 11,000. >> you expect to find a lot more repeat offenders? >> yes. >> all of which begs the question how on earth did those kits sit for so many years in that police warehouse? >> i have to ask, was this incompetence? was it ignorance? >> i can't answer that. that's something you have to ask them, i don't know. all i knew is we had an issue and we had to get with it. >> asking the detroit police now about something that happened in 2009 is difficult. the department has had nine chiefs in the last 20 years, the last two resigned amid scandal including the chief who was in charge in 2009.
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>> that's an explanation that it can fall through the tracks. >> when we asked the detroit police to the interview we were directed to the two men who currently run the sex crimes unit. >> neither inspector marlon wilson nor marvin jones were in charge when the kits wound up in that warehouse. >> would you acknowledge there was a failure? that i can't say. >> they were reticent to blame anyone for what happened. >> how would you describe it? how would you describe what happened here? >> at the time when those rape kits were untested i wasn't part of the sex crimes unit. i can't say. >> do you understand the frustration that the cases weren't handled for years and weren't tested? >> yes. >> you have no way of knowing why that happened? >> no. >> what about that internal investigation the police chief ordered in 2009? >> do you know if that ever happened? >> yes, it did. >> do you know what the results of the investigation were? >> no. i didn't receive the results of the investigation, but i know it
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was conducted. >> they said they completed an internal investigation. >> if they did, i've never seen it. >> nbc news filed an official request for records of any internal investigation and two months later we received this eight-page document. in it, the police say once they became aware of the situation in the warehouse they randomly pulled 36 of the stored rape kits and found there were, quote, justifiable reasons for not testing them. those reasons, police say include victims who refused to prosecute or were uncooperative and assailants who pleaded guilty to lesser charges and that was the end of the police investigation. nbc news showed the report to kym worthy. she questions its validity. >> their reasons were just made-up reasons as to why there should be no investigation. she says plenty of the kits on those shelves were cases that could have been pursued. >> there were some files where they made legal determinations they shouldn't have made. like the complainant was proven
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to be a liar. that's not a determination they're supposed to make. they're supposed to bring the evidence to us and we determine if we have enough to go forward. >> the newest detroit police chief along with inspector wilson and sergeant jones have been very cooperative in the effort to now test every rape kit. >> we don't treat them as 11,000 rape kits. we're looking at each one individually. >> as people. >> as people. yes. but i'm going to make sure that every sexual assault kit that comes through sex crimes is tested. >> audrey polk's case was the first of the tested warehouse kits to lead to a conviction. that moment changed her life and her son's too. >> you know how you can see relief? you can hear relief? he's relieved. >> he doesn't have to carry this around anymore. >> right. he's better. i'm proud of him, too. >> for all the prosecutor's office had done for her audrey had never actually met kym
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worthy and wanted to so we brought her to kym's office. >> hi. >> how are you? >> i'm well. how are you? >> i'm fine. i really want to thank you. you're heaven sent, an angel. >> i just hope we can do this for other women as well. >> i do, too. thank you. >> you're very welcome. >> there is a feeling among victims that they lived through hell, they were victimized and then they were ignored and no one seemed to care and no one noticed and then you came along and you helped. >> i think that's -- i'm flattered by that, but i would like to think that any prosecutor would do that. i hope more than anything it gives hope to those women who were ignored that we are working each and every day to try to fix the things and not every case will be prosecutable, but we'll make sure that we can prosecute as many as we can. >> kate snow is here with us. it's an emotional story and it makes you angry and makes you
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think and of all of the things i have to ask, this is detroit, michigan, this is where firefighters are scraping by, police officers, there is a cost to this. >> and the budgets are decimated. so they're not using county or local money at all. they're using grant money to do this testing. they've tested 600 kits so far. it costs about $1500 on average per kit. so that's a $15 million project that we're talking about if they're going to test every single one. so what they've done now is they've actually started a charity route where people can donate if there's information on our website that people can donate to help test these kits. >> and money should not be an object, but in today's world it is. kate snow, thank you very much, as always. up next here tonight, it's a television game show with a six-figure grand prize and an even higher calling. do you have what it takes to answer "the american bible challenge?" what's better? doing two things at once or just one?
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[ all kids ] twooooo! [ moderator ] you sure? i am absolutely positive! [ little boy ] two times is awesome. the thing i can do is wave my head and wave my... that's amazing. i've never seen anything like that. look i can do -- hold on -- i'm watching this. i'm getting dizzy... [ male announcer ] it's not complicated. doing two things at once is better. and only at&t's network lets you talk and surf on your iphone 5. ♪ that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. new color whisper lipcolor like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. from maybelline new york. sexy sheer color with a whisper soft feel. no oils, no heavy waxes. new color whisper sheer, soft color. ♪maybe it's maybelline
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arundel mills parking lot. investigators say a man stabbed her while swiping her purse. the lengthy police pursuit that followed and the chaotic scene when it ended plus a popular rapper busted on the eastern shore. but why this photo is also causing a stir. plus, possible snowfall tonight and this weekend. chief meteorologist tom tasselmeyer has your 11 insta weather plus forecast coming up. tonight on 11 news, right after rock center with brian williams. [516]1030 live 30 sec-video 1
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♪ ♪ welcome back. what you're about to see combines america's love affair with game shows with the kind of bible study groups you'll find all across this country, and a little television production magic and the result is a ground breaking television quiz show and harry smith went to check it out. >> and this is -- painted soup cans. >> andy warhol! >> since 1994 gsn, the game show network has been a kind of guilty pleasure for those of us who enjoy watching remakes and re-runs of classic quiz shows. >> what did you say, roger? >> i said what to watch on tv. >> the network never had a real hit on the schedule until last summer. who welcomed the prod gal son back home with a kiss. >> it's called "the american bible challenge." it's heaven sent. >> his father.
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>> that is exactly right. >> 13 million people watched the show last season while those aren't exactly super bowl numbers, for gsn, this is big-time stuff. >> king is credited with writing what chapter in proverbs? >> 31. >> it's a biblical trivial pursuit. three teams of three contestants answered questions based on scripture. >> jesus paid the temple tax with the coin found in the mouth of what? matt? >> a fish. >> if it feels a little bit like are you smarter than a sunday school teacher there's jeff foxworth who was reluctant to get involved at first. >> i said i have to get away to think about it. here's what i thought, i didn't want to be in line in hell thinking it was the game show, right? it was the game show. foxworthy has sold more comedy records than anyone ever, written 11 books and hosted are you smarter than a fifth grader and is one of the stars of the
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blue collar comedy tour, he's added more color to our language. >> if your working television sits on top of a not working tfr of it, you might be a red neck. >> i was on homework for a show like this? >> you know the biggest challenge for me being a southern guy, if you could see my cards that i hold, most of them are phonetic pronunciations of these old testament names which apparently i've been saying wrong for decades. >> foxworthy, grew up a baptist and now attends a non-denominational evangelical church near atlanta and he's also been leading bible study groups for homeless people for 15 years. >> it seems to me like you're very comfortable with the material. >> yeah. >> is your bible knowledge that broad? is it that deep? >> it's pretty good. >> no, remember, the rainbow is god's promise never to do it by a flood again. >> i'm one of those weird guys. i mean, because i'm not a big
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fan of organized religion, but i love god. >> hello, marilyn. >> as do the contestants on the the show. we went to atlanta for a casting call where before anything else, would-be players have to pass a 30-question test. >> so here's your quizzes. >> would you be able to name all of the books of the new testament in order? >> matthew, mark, luke, john, romance, first and second, corinthians, galatians and ephesians, philippians, kohl oshians and titus and hebrews, james, first and second peter, first and second third john, june and revelation. ooh! >> we are mission impossible! come on! >> the lord works in mysterious ways. >> go jesus, go jesus, go! >> 300 teams auditioned
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including the rockin' rabbi two rabbis and a theologian student in upstate new york who did so well they earned a place in the second season. >> think we're putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to represent. we feel like within the old testament we know what we're talking about and we should be able to show that to the rest of the world. >> cain is absolutely right. congratulations. >> we had a team of rabbis on yesterday. when they told me that i said you realize they've only studied for half this test, right? we have a lot of uncovered material there. >> turns out foxworthy's biggest task is to make sure his punchlines don't reach the profane. >> here's my thought if the first thing you think when you see an angel i'm going to wrestle him, you might be a redneck. >> the bible is holy scripture. >> yes. indeed it is. how do you figure out whether or not you're going over the line? >> you know, i always think, okay, i don't want to ever hurt
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anybody's feelings. i don't want to ever offend somebody, but there is humor in all of it. >> in truth, the american bible challenge is a kind of made for tv church. ♪ ♪ >> scripture, testimony and a choir. this season led by seven-time grammy winner kirk franklin. ♪ ♪ >> who told me he's there to add a little more sauce and swag to this service. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> when did you first start performing gospel? >> well, i was adopted when i was 4 by a 64-year-old lady that raised me in church and she paid for my piano lessons by recycling old newspapers and cans. >> what do you think she would have had a fan. >> she would have had her peach preserves and homemade ice creams and her friends at the house and she would have had the smaller tv on top of the bigger tv that doesn't work anymore watching the show calling me
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asking me, why does this channel have so many numbers? >> start the clock now. >> and because it really is a game show, there are prizes. winning teams get $20,000 each episode, but there's $100,000 for the tournament champions. all prize money, however, goes to the winning team's charity of choice. >> resurrection. >> resurrection is correct. >> last season, team juddson's of california won it all. >> you just won $100,000. >> they donated their prize money for research into a rare genetic disease which took the life their 11-year-old son in 2007. >> it's time we put your powers of deduction to the test. >> christina, her husband drake and their close friend pastor dean bobar known as the walking bible went on the show as an act of faith. >> his memory and his life are dear to us and we wanted to
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honor him well and we also wanted to expand his legacy and what a gift that through this game show we have absolutely been able to do that. >> congratulations. >> so what kind of guts does it take to be a creature of show business and also declare "i believe in god." my favorite verse is galatians 10 that said am i now seeking the approval of man or of god? i think okay, whose approval am i seeking? am i seeking my peer group or is this the most important relationship i have. >> having a baby at the age of 90 me-maw. just saying. nothing's out of the realm of possibility here. >> most pastors aren't as funny as foxworthy and they assured us he's not trying to compete in that arena. he knows his limitations. >> when i started hosting fifth grader, people suddenly thought i was smarter than i was and i would say, hey, if i didn't have the cards it would be the shortest show on television and
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now i'm doing this and people think this guy has all of the spiritual answers in the world. no, i'm still the same idiot. i'm still two decisions from drywalling, you know? >> harry smith reporting from los angeles for us tonight. up next, some very large birds that found themselves in very odd places. that and a few other interesting items from the week that was right after this. vacation is a precious thing. this year, don't just take time off. put time in. turn spending time with your family into spending time as a family. at the one place where every heart-pounding, jaw-dropping, goose-bumping second counts. it's your vacation. don't just take it. mean it. universal orlando. vacation like you mean it. a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me.
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♪ ♪ ♪ we are back to sweep up some of the details of a busy week, and we want to begin with a quick look at technology which we found always works best if it fixes something that's broken about life, and that hasn't always been the case of late. it was a lovely wedding and they are a lovely couple. they had the very cool idea of getting married in grand central station and "the new york times" covered the events for the vows section of their website.
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now, a grand central wedding isn't for everybody. it is a bit on the public side, but it was kind of romantic except maybe the glow from the ipad. bibles and even paper vows have worked great for centuries and don't need a charger. can we not agree that sometimes old school is best. using ipads as cameras, for example is like taking pictures with a cafeteria tray especially when you consider they make cameras that are small and take really good pictures, same with the new jersey firefighters who were recently sworn in with the ipad bible app. they make bibles that work real well for that. and while it didn't get much attention a few weeks back, we lost the man who, in a way, started it all. john carlen invented digital, working for the old bell labs, he figured out how to dial a phone with push buttons, and,
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his invention turned 50 years old this year. john carlin was 94. a strange and strangely beautiful picture from florida this week. a woman was driving and felt an awful thus. she thought she'd killed a bird. it turned out a great-horned owl had been consumed by the grill of her suv and was pulled out alive 150 miles later and is recouping nicely. in other news, perhaps the bakersfield condors would do better than one of the those giant-headed human condor. fans were scared and players tried not to look scared. the ice didn't help, but finally, they wrangled the bird. >> down the road in l.a. at a lakers game that was will ferrell just standing there as a security guard. our first clue that it was him came from the name tag we cannot say out loud. one more animal item on the web
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this week. a couple in washington has named their dog chuck todd. there is so much potential material here, we're just going to walk away for the sake of both chuck todds. >> a lot of people love seeing this, gabby giffords in a beautiful photo shoot alongside her husband in the march issue of "vogue" magazine. all that much more astounding when you consider the road she has traveled to get here. another incredible photo from this week, this is not dubai. it's boston. this is what a major american city looks like under two feet of of freshly fallen snow and turned entirely white. and a perfectly got excuse to use the second clip in two weeks from the same film, "love actually" has just been voted the film most likely to put you in a romantic mood, val gagz for romantics everywhere and for all of us who insistered for years that it's a great movie. finally, we at nbc were in the
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news this week because comcast is buying out ge's 49% stake in nbc universal. it will mean for the first time in 27 years we won't be owned in part or entirely by ge. while we will miss the employee discount on locomotives, power systems and mris, we nbc veterans see a huge opportunity here and there it is, atop rock center in midtown manhattan as part of this deal, comcast also buys ge's real estate and we took the liberty of putting together a modest mock-up of what we employees would like to see up there in its place. again, just a suggestion. we can go over the exact details, but i think new yorkers would love looking up at that kind of thing. hey, we want to give you some head's up on next week's broadcast here on "rock center" our reports will include an
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investigation by dr. nancy snyderman. this happens to be an incredible story. it's about a cluster of male breast cancer cases at camp lejeune among members of the u.s. marine corps. >> how many of you, by a show of hands, believe that the united states marines are in some way in part for you responsible for getting breast cancer? >> this is really an important story. it's about people who have volunteered to serve their country, people who are suffering today. we hope you can join us for it. that's going to be it for this week's edition of "rock center" and for everyone that works so hard here in new york to bring you the broadcast, thank you for being with us. for >> you are watching wbal-tv 11. live. local. late breaking. >> good evening. it looks like mother nature it looks like mother nature wants to butt in

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